Sound-conducting attachment for telephone-receivers.



Y v 0 .l a X lllllllllllllll IIN, s fr Dn? xs .u I. ,IL l l I l l l l I .lll-.J n. d u

lifllllVIH/m,

SOUND'UDNDUGTNG; ATTAGHMBNT PoR TLBPHoNB BBGEIVERS,

, 13 surrounding said `phone receiver main-n sTnTns rATnn'T ori-uen.

CHARLES H. GTCHELL, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

sonne-'CONDUGTING ATTACHMENT ron 'rELnrnoNE-.nnonrvnns Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed .Tune 24, 19139, Serial No. 504,060. Renewed .T uly 22, 1911.

Patented Sept. 12, 1911.

serial No. 640,019,

To all whom fit may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. GATCHELL, of Boston, in the county lof' Suil'olk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sound-Conducting Attachments for Telephone-Receivers, a specification.

rlhis invention has for its object. to provide ani attachment for an ordinary tele- Wher'eby a branched sound conducting tube may be detachably secured to the ordinary ear piece of the receiver, one branch of said tube having an ear piece in close proximity to the receiver, While the other branch is provided with a iexible tube, the freeA end of which is provided with another ear piece, the arrangement being such that the two ear pieces of the attachment may be applied simultaneously to (the two ears of the user of the telephone receiver, or one of said ear pieces may be applied to one ear of the user, and the ear piece on the iiexibletube applied at the same time to one ofthe ears of another person, thus enabling two vpersons to simultaneously use the recenter.

The invention consists in the limprovementswhich l will now proceed to describe and claim.

Ofgathe accompanying drawings, forming a part of this speciication,-li`igure 1 repre! sentsga perspective view of a telephone attachment embodying my invention. Fig. 2 represents a sectional view of the same applied to a telephone receiver, a portion of which is shown in dotted lines. Fig.,3 represents a side view of a portion of the attachment illustrating the manner of applying the same to a receiver. n sents a side view showing a modication.

In the drawings, 12 represents the Aear piece of ordinary hand telephone or receiver,l.the saine being of theordinary construction and applied to the body of the receiver in such manner as to confine the usual diaphragm which extends across the sound opening at the center of theconcave front sideiot the ear piece, the ear piece projecting outwardly from the body of the receiver so that its inner side forms an annular shoulder body. y

111- represents a sheet metal plate formed to cover the front side of the ear piece 12, and bears Iupon the margin of, the same, the saidv plate when applied to the receiver of which the following is constituting the outer side of an air space, the inner side of which is formed by the concave :front side of the ear piece.

15 represents asound conducting tube which extends through the plate 14 and registers with the usuai opening at the center of the concave side of the ear piece, said tube being adapted to conduct sound vibrations from the said air space to an ear piece 16 which is attached to the outer end of the tube`15. The tube is provided bet-Ween the plate 14 and ear piece 16 witha branch 17 to which is connected the inner end of a flexible sound conducting tube 18, the free end' 01"' T which isl provided with an ear piece 19.

When the plate 14- is applied to an ordinary receiver, as indicated in Fig. 2, the earI piece 16 is in close proximity to the usual ear piece of the receiver, and may be held against one ear of the user. The ear piece 19 may at the same time be pther ear of the user, thus enabling both ears tobe used in receiving sound vibrations from the receiver, the exible tube 18 being ot' such length that its ear piece 19 may if desiredbe applied to the ear of another person so that two persons may simultaneously receive a message through the receiver'. Provision is therefore made forv enabling the user of a telephone receiver to exclude eX- tei-nal noises and utilize both ears in :receiving the message, ant to receive the message at the same time, the assistant being enabled to verify themesapplied to the i sage and to make notes of the same if desired.

I have provided means for enablingthe described attachment to be quickly and securely applied to an ordinary telephone receiver, and as quickly removed therefrom, o that the attachment may be applied and discarded with desirable risk of accidental dislodgment. means include hooked coupling members 20 projecting from the upper portion of the edge of the plate 14, these members being integral with the plate 14 and formed to cx` tend across the perimeter of the ear piece 12, and bear itpon portions i der 13, the bearing of the members 2O on the ear piece being practically rigidso that when the attachment is in place, they will not yield to an outward pull in a direction lengthwise of the body of the receiver. vThis practically rigid engagement between the facility, without The saidv of the rear shoulmembers 20 and the ear piece is due to the fact that the end portions 21 of the meinbers 20 are so formed that they have an extended llat bearing on the shoulder 13, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 4, hence a pull on the plate 14 in a direction indicated by the arrow m in Fig. 2, will press the end portions 21 firmly against the shoulder 13 without having a tendency to spring them outward, and enable them to slip over the margin of the ear piece 12. The lower edge portion of the plate 14 is provided with an adjustable coupling member 22 adapted to pass freely across the edge of theear piece when the plate 14 is swung in the direction indicated by the arrow' if in Fig. 3, the member 22, a's shown in Figs. 1,v 2, and 3, being a curved resilient arm, the curvature of which is such i thatl when the members 20 are engaged with the shoulder 13 in tlic--position shown in Fig. 3, a swinging nioven'ient ot' the plate toward the ear piece 12 will first cause the outer end ofthe member 22 to spring outwardly and move across the `.perimeter of the ear piece, the outer portion ot' the member 22 then springinginwardly behind the shoulder 13, and confining the plate 14 against the ear piece, as indicated in Fig. 2. lt will be seen therefore that the plate 14 may be applied to the ear piece 12 by tirst engagingl the members 2O with the rear shoulder ot )the ear piece, and then swinging the plate inwardly toward the front .side of the ear piece until it, comes to a bearing thereon, the member 22 adjusting itself to the position required to hold the plate against the ear piece in conjunction with the members 20. The plate may be detached by swinging outwardlytlie portion carrying the member 22, the lat-ter yieldingy and passing' :treely across the perimeter o'l" the ear piece until it reaches. the position shown in Fie'. 3,.wlien the members 20 may beieadily lifted from their engagement with the ear piece.

The branch tube 17 ext ends in a direction from the center of tlie device opposite to the hooks 2O so that the weight of the tube 1S antiiear piece 19, or an accidental pull thereon, will not dislodge the device because such pull ca ii not act in a direction the reverse ot the arrow 3,/ in Fig. 3.

In Fig. 4, I show a modification in which a two-arined lever isA substituted for the spring member 22, said lever comprising a curved inner arm 23 and an outer arm or handle 24 standing at an angle to the arm 23. The lever is provided with ears or trunnions 25 which are adapted to turn in spring loops 26 formed on the plate 14. When the said lever is in the position indi* cated by dotted lines in Fig.' 4, the arm offers no obstruction to the application of the plate 14 to the ear piece 12, the plate being moved to a bearing on the ear pieceby tirsteiigaging the members 20 therewith, and then swinging the plate inwardly as above described. The lever is then turned to the position shown by full lines in Fig. 4, the arm 23 being thus caused to engage the rei r shoulder ot' the ear piece 12. The loops-2G ai'e sutliciently resilient to cause them to bear on the sides oi the trunnions 25 and yieldingly hold the lever in either of the positions shown.

The ear piece 16 when made of glass is 'preferably cast or molded with an opening "of larger diameter tliaiithe tube 15, said opening containinga 'bushing 3() of yicld ing material such as eorlt, or semi-hard rubber adapted to closely tit the wall of the opening and the exterior of the tube, the bushing being cemented, if desired, to the ear piece.

I claim:

A sound conducting attachment for telephone receivers, comprising a tlat plate adapted to bear on the rim of the ear piece ot an ordinary receiver, and provided at: one poi-tim of its edge with practically rigid hooked coupling members adapted to cngage the rear shoulder ot the ear piece of the receiver, and permit a swinging move ment of the plate to a bearing' on the front of the ear piece, and at: another portion ot its edge with an adjustable coupling niembcr adapted to pass freely across the edge of the ear piece when the plate is swingingl to a bearing thereon, and to engag'fjc said rear shoulder to confine the plate against the ear piece, a sound coi ducting tube having a branch and having one end extending through the plate and having an ear piece at its other end, the said ear piece being at a distance i'i'oni the itat plate to permit the branch to extend laterally without contactwith either the. liat plate or outer ear piece, and a flexible tube connected at one endwitli said branch and having an ear piece at its free end.

In testimony whereof I have atiixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES Il'. GA'tCl-IELL.

`Witnesses C. F. BROWN, I). W'. Pi-:zzirrrr 

